


Neil's Guide to Stalking Your Neighbor (The Step-by-Step Remix)

by Kaladin_x_happiness



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Neighbor au, and also some slight knife threatening, deaf!Andrew Minyard, rated teen for references to canon-typical past abuse, remix fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27286156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaladin_x_happiness/pseuds/Kaladin_x_happiness
Summary: Neil's got an obsession with his blue-haired, punk neighbor. But he's not stalking. Is he?A remix of Neil's Guide to Stalking Your Neighbor, by justadreamfox
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 13
Kudos: 132
Collections: AFTG Remix 2020





	Neil's Guide to Stalking Your Neighbor (The Step-by-Step Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Neil's Guide to Stalking Your Neighbor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442378) by [justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/pseuds/justadreamfox). 



> Shoutout to justadreamfox for writing the sweetest, fluffiest, softest andreil content, I love what you do. Hope you like this.

**Step One: Criticize His Knife Handling**

The first time Neil ran into Neighbor, he was heading out the door for a run. He really wasn’t supposed to be running anymore; he’d taken up yoga after it became clear that the damage to his legs was going to be permanent. Usually, yoga soothed the itch to run and move. Today? It just wasn’t cutting it. The ghosts of the past were breathing down his neck, and his only hope was to outrun them. (It wouldn’t work of course; it never did. But it would at least buy him some time.) He put on his shoes and raced out the door, so lost in his thoughts that he slammed straight into the Neighbor. Before he could quite register what had happened, the blue haired man slammed him into the wall, and Neil felt the sharp point of a knife in his left side. He shoved down the wave of panic and looked the Neighbor straight in the eyes. “Is this how you say hello to everybody?”

The man looked at him blankly for a moment, then stepped away and slid the knife back into his armband. Neil took a deep breath as the pressure against him was suddenly removed. “Sorry,” Neighbor said, scratching behind his ear. “I startle easily.”

Neil appraised him for a moment. The Neighbor had shockingly blue hair in a fohawk, an incredible number of piercings, and was wearing the punkest gear he’d ever seen. Those clothes were way too tight to be functional. “Good reflexes,” he replied. “Next time if you want to do some permanent damage, put the knife on the other side of their body. Easier to hit the liver that way.” Neighbor gave him a dumbfounded look as Neil gave a two-finger salute and moved around him to start his run. “What an asshole,” he grumbled. But he was smiling.

**Step Two: Memorize His Schedule**

The second time he ran into Neighbor was almost as strange as the first time. It was an old habit, and a weird one, but it had kept Neil alive in the past and those habits are hard to break: he had the daily habits of all the people in his apartment building pretty much memorized. There were only 4 units, which made it much easier. College Student lived in the top left. He left the house around the same time Neil did most days, came back late, looked perpetually exhausted, and always had a backpack. Across the hall was Doris, a chattery old lady who went on a daily walk at exactly 10 am but otherwise only left for grocery shopping, church, or brunch with her sister. (Neil had heard entirely too much about the sister, and had started avoiding Doris to escape the small talk.) That left Upstairs Neighbor of the knives and blue hair. He left for work at 8 pm every night and stomped his way back up the stairs at 3 am, waking Neil up every time. He was certainly an odd sight walking down the street, with the blue hair and the ripped black jeans and everything else. It was the kind of look that made people look twice, and Neil admired him a bit for that. Despite Allison’s best attempts, he’d never managed the need to blend in, not stand out, watch his back. His clothes were high quality, but plain. To see someone willing to dress that dramatically different… It was inspirational, honestly.

It was 8:30 pm on a Wednesday, and Neil was just getting back from the last class he had to teach. He’d covered classes starting at 7:45 am and ending just half an hour ago, and he was wiped. Wednesday was the one night he could count on to sleep well (anxiety was a bitch). He was always disappointed that he would miss seeing Neighbor, though. Not that he was a stalker or anything. It just made his day better, okay? He was thinking about that when he walked around the corner to the door and almost slammed headfirst into the guy again.

“Whoops!” Neil jumped backwards to avoid another knife incident. He stared at the blue hair and pierced nose as he always did, kind of dumbfounded. “You aren’t supposed to be here!”  _ Shit. _

Neighbor just raised an eyebrow as the pause got long and awkward. “Forgot my phone,” he finally muttered, before pushing past Neil and marching off to wherever he went at 8 pm every night.

“Asshole,” Neil muttered, but he smiled anyway.

**Step Three: Angrily Confront Him In The Middle Of The Night**

It was 3 am and Neil was pissed. Every single night Neighbor got home at 3 am. Every single night, Neil could hear him going up the stairs.  _ Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. _ It had already been an awful night. He’d tossed and turned, haunted by the smell of non-existent smoke and Lola’s low laugh as she sharpened a knife. Every stolen snippet of sleep ended with him waking with a silent gasp, frozen in his bed as the wave of adrenaline washed over him. And now, just as he was settling into what might actually be a full hour of sleep, the stomping. Again.

It was just too much. Neil threw the covers off, jumped to his feet, and rushed to open the door. As the icy wind of winter hit him, he was grateful that he’d never lost the habit of sleeping fully clothed (though he’d at least graduated to pajamas). And there was Neighbor, stomping up the steps with his heavy boots that he wore everywhere.

Neighbor froze as the door banged open and they stared each other down. Neil became suddenly aware of the state of his hair, his ragged old pajamas, and the way he was obviously breathing very heavily. He wasn’t sure why he’d made this choice; he didn’t  _ actually _ want to pick a fight with Neighbor in the middle of the night. But then the moment ended. Neighbor bent down to untie his shoelaces and slid the heavy boots off. He nodded at Neil, picked them up in one hand, and silently made his way up the stairs.

Neil closed his door and hopped back into his bed. He never managed to sleep again that night, but he also was never woken at 3 am again either.

**Step Four: Knock On His Door**

The fourth run-in happened on Memorial Day. The yoga studio was closed, and while Neil usually preferred to be busy, he’d had a particularly exhausting week and was looking forward to a day to rest. It was not to be, apparently. Around 9 am he started hearing music coming from upstairs. It was loud and awful and barely recognizable. Neil turned over in his bed, put in his earplugs, pulled the pillow over his head - it was all in vain. Finally he jumped out of bed, changed into some real clothes, and trudged up the stairs to confront the Neighbor.

Neil pounded on the door as the music blared in his ears. No answer. He went to knock again and noticed a doorbell button. That was strange; Neil didn’t have a doorbell. He pressed it. Shortly afterward the door opened, and he launched into his speech. “You know what? I get it. I’m not usually home, and you think you can get away with this, but this is - what the fuck happened to your hair?” Neighbor was standing there in his pajamas, hair messy and uncombed and  _ blonde _ . The piercings were gone. The boots were gone. He looked like a regular dude who had just been woken up by a doorbell. In fact, now that Neil paused, the music definitely wasn’t coming from in here.

Neighbor stared Neil down uncomprehendingly for a long moment before realization washed over his face. He marched across the hallway to College Student’s door, Neil following, and banged hard on the door. The music came to a discordant crashing stop, and the door opened. “Hey Andrew!” said the College Student. Andrew’s hands flash and Neil half expected a repeat of the Knife Incident, but then recognized it as sign language as College Student replied in king. Then he looked past and saw Neil. “Sorry about that, dude. You’re not usually home on Mondays.”

“Is this a thing you usually do?” Neil asked.

College Student bounced excitedly. “Yeah, our band gets together every Monday. Doris downstairs goes to brunch with her sister, you’re at work, and Andrew - well. It’s the perfect time.” Neil nodded. “I forgot it was a holiday today. We will keep it down. I’m Seth, by the way.” He held out his hand, and Neil shook it.

“Thank you. I’m Neil.” Seth closed the door with a cheery farewell. The music started again, much quieter this time, and Neil followed Andrew back over to his door. He turned to wave goodbye and Neil blurted out, “Can I ask you something?” Andrew nodded and gestured for him to come in, then held up a finger as if to say ‘one minute.’ He went back towards his bedroom, and came out a minute later with hearing aids in both ears.

“Alright, which part of the tragic hearing loss story do you want to hear first? How long it’s been? How it happened? How I deal with it?”

“Actually, I was wondering what happened to your hair.”

“My… hair?” Andrew blinked.

“It’s not blue!!”

Andrew stared at him. “No, it’s not.” He began to laugh. It was a quiet thing, but a joyous one. The kind of laugh that clearly doesn’t come often but is truer when it does. “I work at a punk bar downtown. The mohawk is a wig, and the piercings and such help me fit in.”

Neil laughed too. “All the times I stared at that hair and I never figured out it was a wig.”

“Staring, were you?” Andrew grinned.

“Not like that! You make it sound creepy.” Neil shifted his feet a bit. “I just admired you for having it, actually. It takes a lot of courage to stand out like that.”

Andrew shrugged. “A little less so when you work at a punk bar.”

Neil laughed. “That would make sense.”

Andrew nodded. “What are your plans for today, anyway? Anything fun for the holiday?”

“Not really. Work is closed. Allison is busy so she won’t be dragging me out to her stuff again.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Hell no,” he laughed. “Just a friend.”

Andrew thought about that for a bit. “Are you a movie person?”

“It depends. Why?”

He nodded towards the tv. “I was planning to marathon Lord of the Rings today. Have you ever seen those?”

“I haven’t actually.”

“You want to?"

Neil blinked. “Sure, I guess.”

**Step Five: Start Dating**

The movie nights became a regular thing. Andrew had insisted on the Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings, and Neil could only sit through one a day without losing his mind. The bar was closed on Sundays, and so was the yoga studio, and so it became their Thing to get together and watch a movie. First it was Lord of the Rings, followed by the Hobbit movies. Then it was the eight Harry Potter films.

And then they would talk. Or text, sometimes, when words were hard. They played truth-for-a-truth. Neil shared his scars. Andrew shared his. They shared lighter things, like funny things Allison had said or dumb arguments Kevin had gotten into that week. Neil brought home lattes, and Andrew Neil learned more about what it was like to live in a muted world, and two months later he fingerspelled a word that Andrew wasn’t managing to lipread.

That was the first time they kissed.

And that was just the beginning of their story.


End file.
